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Cancer patient picnic hosted for patients of Canfield clinic
By ROBERT CONNELLY
CAMPBELL
Cancer patients gathered Friday afternoon to celebrate life and get to know each other and the people that care for them.
More than 150 patients registered for the event sponsored by the Smile Network support organization, which has a branch within Canfield’s Blood and Cancer Center, 3695 Boardman-Canfield Road. The event took place away from the center, at the Roosevelt Park In Campbell from 1:30 p.m. to about 3 p.m.
“Today, no one looks like they’re in pain,” said Yolanda Serrano, mother of event organizer Yvette Lobay.
Lobay is a medical technician and coordinator for the Smile Network branch within the Blood and Cancer Center. She said that last year, 40 people attended the event, and she hopes to increase the number of participants next year.
Laboy explained that the center does a “patient picnic because [with] a lot of our patients – we don’t like to make them walk [as] much” as a person does with Relay for Life.
Laboy said the event made her feel “a sense of togetherness, because when we’re at work, we don’t get the opportunity to know them ... [this is] more relaxed than chemotherapy or shots.”
She wrote letters to area businesses seeking donations, and there was a drawing for cancer survivors to win baskets of those donated items. People mingled with one another while eating a meal served by employees of the Blood and Cancer Center. A Perfect Pair emceed the event and performed live music, and there were alpacas on hand for children.
Glen Denny of Lake Milton said his non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma has been in remission for five years, and Friday’s event made him feel “glad to be alive.”
“I think it’s great that we can all get together and socialize,” he said.
Anna Levesque of Youngstown has defeated lymphoma twice. “I’m well, so I’m trying to be more active than I was,” she said, as she plans to attend more events like Friday’s picnic. She has been in treatment since 2013.
Marilyn Lutsch of Salem said she has been cancer-free for six years and had breast cancer. “I’ve never seen anything like this, and I come to the Christmas [event], too. I look forward to seeing the people besides the nurses at the clinic. Some of them I sit in the waiting room with,” she said as she sat with family members.
Isaiah Warren, 9, was honored for raising money by shoveling snow from driveways this past winter. The funds he raised were given to a young cancer patient and family, Laboy said.
“They made you feel like you were family, and they’re real caring,” said Janet Davidson of Youngstown. She has been breast-cancer-free for five years. “This event helps me to take one day at a time, and you meet new people and enjoy being here today,” she said. “You get to know all the people, and you don’t realize how many people have cancer – and you’re not the only one.”